Insider Podcast: Ajla Tomljanovic On The Comeback Trail
WTA Insider David Kane | Ajla Tomljanovic’s Miami Open quest may have come to an end, but the resurgent youngster won’t be deterred by on-court setbacks after over a year away from tennis.
WTA Insider David Kane | Ajla Tomljanovic’s Miami Open quest may have come to an end, but the resurgent youngster won’t be deterred by on-court setbacks after over a year away from tennis.
WTA Podcast Episode 15: Ker-Pow! Angelique Kerber wins the Australian Open
On this Episode 15, WTA Insider Senior Writer Courtney Nguyen recaps the stunning result Down Under, as New World No.2 Angelique Kerber became the first German woman to win a major since Steffi Graff in 1999, stunning No.1 Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open.
Joining Courtney to discuss Kerber’s mind-bending run to her first major title as as well as the two weeks that were here in Melbourne, is Reem Abuleil, tennis correspondent for Sport360, a daily sports newspaper based in Dubai.
Finally, in the Champion’s Corner you’ll hear from the Kerber herself. She spoke to Nguyen a day after winning the title about what inspired her chilly jump into the Yarra River and how her work ethic and perseverance made the victory all the sweeter.
Kerber: “I think I’m a person that needs a little bit of time. Of course, I believed in myself, but I had a lot of up and downs in my career where I was thinking, is this the right way? Could I reach my goals? But I had a great team around me always telling me that, ‘You’re a great player and you’re practicing and working so hard. One day you will deserve it.’ I was trusting my team more than myself.”
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Venus Williams remained in orbit in Miami, ousting Patricia Maria Tig in straight sets to set up an intriguing fourth-round match-up with fellow former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
When: This year’s Olympic tennis event begins on Saturday, August 6th, one week after the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada. The gold medal women’s doubles match will be played on Saturday, August 13th. The gold medal singles and mixed doubles matches will take place on Sunday, August 14th.
The Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio begins a day later on Monday August 15th. The US Open begins on August 29th.
Where: Unlike the 2012 Olympics, where the tennis event was held at the All England Club, the tennis event in Rio takes place right in the heart of the Olympics. The event will take place on hardcourts at the Olympic Tennis Centre in Barra Olympic Park. The Centre Court seats 10,000, with nine secondary courts ranging in 250-5,000 in capacity.
Defending champions: 2012 London Olympics results.
Singles:
Gold: Serena Williams (USA), Silver: Maria Sharapova (RUS), Bronze: Victoria Azarenka (BLR).
Doubles
Gold: Serena Williams/Venus Williams (USA), Lucie Hradecka/Andrea Hlavackova (CZE), Bronze: Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova (RUS).
Mixed Doubles:
Gold: Victoria Azarenka/Max Mirnyi (BLR), Silver: Laura Robson/Andy Murray (GBR), Bronze: Lisa Raymond/Mike Bryan (USA)
Format: The women’s singles event will be a 64-player draw. The women’s doubles event is a 32-team draw and the Mixed Doubles will be a 16-team draw. Players are entitled to enter all three events if they qualify. There are no wildcards at the Olympics.
Singles: Best of 3 tiebreak sets (Note: Men’s final will be best of 5 tiebreak sets)
Doubles: Best of 3 tiebreak sets.
Mixed Doubles: Best of 3 sets (tiebreak in first 2 sets, match tiebreak in the third set).
No WTA ranking points will be offered.
Player Eligibility:
To be eligible for the Olympics, a player must be part of the final Fed Cup team at the time of the draw and be present at the tie a minimum of three times in the four-year Olympic cycle. One of those ties must occur in either 2015 or 2016.
Alternatively, a player may be part of just two ties during the Olympic cycle, provided one of those ties occurred in 2015 or 2016, if she (a) reaches the milestone of 20 weeks in her Fed Cup career (Francesca Schiavone, Sam Stosur, and Daniela Hantuchova qualify for this exemption) or (b) if a nation plays a zone group round robin event for at least three of the four years in the current Olympic cycle, a player from that country only needs to be nominated twice. For example, Caroline Wozniacki has played just one tie for Denmark in the current Olympic cycle, which means she needs to play in Denmark’s upcoming zonal tie to be eligible.
All athletes must be in good standing with their national tennis federation and the ITF. The ITF may also take into consideration the following special circumstances when determining a player’s eligibility: (1) a player is injured or otherwise unable to compete in any authorized tennis tournament for a minimum of six months; (2) A player only reaches a ranking level sufficient for Fed Cup selection by her federation during the latter part of an Olympic cycle; or (3) A nation has a large number of highly-ranked players resulting in strict competition for selection, or its Fed Cup selection policy limits the opportunities for singles players.
Player Entry Rules:
Singles entry: The Top 56 eligible players will be entered as Direct Acceptances based on their WTA rankings on June 6th, 2016. This does not mean the main draw cut-off is at No.56. In the event a player ranked in the Top 56 is otherwise ineligible, the next highest-ranked player will earn main draw entry.
Six Qualification Entries will be allocated by the ITF according to the following priority (“Qualification System”): 1) host nation (if no Brazilian qualifies via direct acceptance, the top-ranked player will be entered), 2) Regional Representation (if one of the six ITF Regions has no representation, the highest-ranked player from that region will be entered if they are in the top 300), 3) Gold Medalist/Grand Slam Champion (a maximum of two singles gold medalists and Slam champions will be entered if they are ranked in the top 200), 4) Universality (if any places remain they will be allocated to the next best ranked player from a National Olympic Committee (NOC) that has no representation in that singles event).
The remaining two places will be allocated by the Tripartite Commission.
Doubles and Mixed Doubles entry: 24 doubles teams and 12 mixed doubles teams will qualify directly based on their combined rankings. To determine their combined ranking for the purposes of entry, each player may use the best of their singles or doubles ranking. An additional eight doubles teams and four mixed doubles teams will be given entry based on the ITF’s Qualification System.
Automatic Top 10 Rule: Doubles players ranked in the Top 10 will earn direct entry so long as their partner has a recognized ranking, they are entered by their respective NOC, and their nomination does not bring the number of athletes for that NOC to more than 6 men/women.
For example, if Sania Mirza is still ranked in the top 10 on June 6th, she could choose any player from India as her doubles partner so long as they have a tour ranking and satisfy all other eligibility requirements. That’s a powerful tool given India has no singles player ranked in the Top 300 and no doubles player ranked in the Top 250.
This rule does not apply to the mixed doubles competition. For mixed doubles, entry is determined solely by a team’s combined ranking.
On Site Rule: In addition, any player entered in singles is automatically eligible for the doubles and mixed doubles events, though direct entry is not guaranteed.
National Team Composition:
A national team may consist of a maximum of six women per country, of which a maximum of four women may compete in singles, and a maximum of two doubles teams may compete in doubles.
If a country has more than four players eligible for direct acceptance into the singles event it must select its four highest-ranked eligible players based on the WTA rankings.
This rule impacts the heavily represented countries in the Top 50, including the United States (7 in the Top 60), Germany (7 in the Top 60), Czech Republic (5 in the Top 60), and Russia (5 in the Top 60). And that’s with more players pushing up from behind. For these countries, the race to qualify doesn’t just mean being Top 56, but being one of the top four players from your country. This is the race we’ll be keeping an eye on over the next five months.
A maximum of two mixed doubles teams from any country may compete in the mixed doubles event.
Full Qualification and Entry Rules can be found here.
All photos courtesy of Getty Images.
An interview with Monica Puig after winning the gold medal at the Olympic tennis event in Rio.
MIAMI, FL, USA – The weather might not have been as glorious as expected, but there’s still plenty to do (and tweet about) in Miami.
Elina Svitolina popped along to the Wynwood Walls a few days ago – now Andrea Hlavackova and Cagla Buyukakcay have enjoyed a spot of art in their Miami downtime.
Stopped by #WynwoodWalls because it just seems like place to go in Miami and wasnt disapointed ! #artsyafternoon #checkmyinstagram #formore pic.twitter.com/3PBIzmRAgk
— Andrea Hlavackova (@AndreaHlavackov) March 27, 2017
Azmin elinden hiçbir şey kurtulmaz??
Day off in beautiful #Wynwood ? pic.twitter.com/7oFZU0Vp3O— Çağla Büyükakçay (@CaglaBuyukakcay) March 26, 2017
Meanwhile, one legend wished a happy birthday to another.
happy birthday to my dear friend Elton @eltonofficial @ejaforg #champion in Life pic.twitter.com/QD85EDnlBz
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) March 26, 2017
Sloane Stephens needed a rest.
this is what real work looks like…….. @TennisChannel pic.twitter.com/27G9j0965D
— Sloane Stephens (@SloaneStephens) March 26, 2017
And whether you’re a world-class tennis player or not, Ana Konjuh certainly has some wise words of advice for you.
Closing your eyes after turning off your alarm is a very dangerous game ?
— Ana Konjuh (@anakonjuh) March 27, 2017
Two-time Olympian Caroline Wozniacki will make a third trip to the Games this summer in Rio, and this time will be leading out the Danish team during the opening ceremony.
Former World No.1 Wozniacki was unveiled as her nation’s flag bearer during a press conference at Copenhagen City Hall on Friday afternoon, where she was presented with the Danish flag by Crown Prince Frederik.
“It’s an honor for me! The Olympics mean a lot to me, and I have some fantastic memories from my two previous appearances,” Wozniacki said. “I enjoy competing for the Danish team and feel the team spirit, which I do not get to experience in my everyday life.
“Carrying the flag in Rio will be one of the highlights of my career and something I will never forget.”
In both of her previous Olympic appearances, Wozniacki fell to the eventual Gold medalist: Serena Williams at the 2012 London Games in the quarterfinals, and Elena Dementieva in the third round in Beijing four years earlier.
Wozniacki, 25, will be the fifth WTA player to carry their country’s flag at the Games, following in the footsteps of Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Stephanie Vogt, and Claudine Schaul.
Such a dream come true!! Was chosen to be the Danish flag bearer at the opening ceremony at the Rio Olympics! ?? pic.twitter.com/mIfFj0pnPz
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) February 5, 2016
Karolina Pliskova takes on Jelena Ostapenko in the second round of the Western & Southern Open.
Chinese New Year is Monday, February 8, and in the spirit of the holidays we’re looking at the Chinese Zodiac, where each of the 12 years in the cycle is represented by an animal sign and thus their reputed attributes: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
2016 is the Year of the Monkey, which makes it an extra special Chinese New Year for former No.1 Venus Williams and Fed Cup heroine Karolina Pliskova, who led the Czech Republic to a 3-2 victory over Romania this weekend with three wins in singles and doubles. Most auspiciously, Williams and Pliskova ended the 2015 season by reaching the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai final, which the American won to finish the year ranked inside the Top 10 for the first time in five years.
Which animals are the Top 50 players on the WTA? The birth years range from 1980 to 1997…
Monkey (1980, 1992)
Venus Williams
Karolina Pliskova
Rooster (1981, 1993)
Serena Williams
Garbiñe Muguruza
Caroline Garcia
Sloane Stephens
Kristina Mladenovic
Monica Puig
Dog (1982, 1994)
Flavia Pennetta
Elina Svitolina
Annika Beck
Daria Gavrilova
Alison Van Uytvanck
Margarita Gasparyan
Anna Karolina Schmiedlova
Danka Kovinic
Pig (1983, 1995)
Roberta Vinci
Madison Keys
Rat (1984, 1996)
Samantha Stosur
Ox (1985, 1997)
Jelena Jankovic
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Belinda Bencic
Tiger (1986)
Barbora Strycova
Varvara Lepchenko
Rabbit (1987)
Lucie Safarova
Maria Sharapova
Sara Errani
Andrea Petkovic
Monica Niculescu
Ana Ivanovic
Dragon (1988)
Ekaterina Makarova
Angelique Kerber
Carla Suárez Navarro
Snake (1989)
Agnieszka Radwanska
Lesia Tsurenko
Sabine Lisicki
Timea Bacsinszky
Victoria Azarenka
Horse (1990)
Petra Kvitova
Caroline Wozniacki
Alizé Cornet
Irina-Camelia Begu
Mona Barthel
Sheep (1991)
Johanna Konta
Simona Halep
Camila Giorgi
CoCo Vandeweghe
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova